'The New York Times' investigates a Palestinian hobby

You thought Palestinians throw stones because of the occupation? Think again.

A young Palestinian is seen injured during a protest against the wall in Bil’in, April 2004 (photo: Anne Paq/Activestills)

The New York Times on Sunday published one of its most out-of-context items from the West Bank in recent years – and it has published many of them. The piece consists of a study of “the culture of stone-throwing,” which apparently has become part of Palestinian life, in the same way that Friday dinners are part of Jewish life or Sunday walks in Central Park are part of New York life.

The head of the paper’s Jerusalem bureau, Jodi Rudoren (who has written decent pieces in the past), traveled to the village of Beit Ommar (north of Hebron), where soldiers and settlers are being repeatedly attacked by stones for some unknown reason. In an effort to unveil the mystery, she meets a local settler who explains how bad things have gotten. “It’s crazy: I’m going to get pizza, and I’m driving through a war zone,” she is quoted as saying. On Thursday, some settlers were forced to shoot the natives on this very same road. How unpleasant!

After talking to some locals, the author manages to get to the heart of the matter:

The youths, and their parents, say they are provoked by the situation: soldiers stationed at the village entrance, settlers tending trees beyond. They throw because there is little else to do in Beit Ommar — no pool or cinema, no music lessons after school, no part-time jobs other than peddling produce along the road. They do it because their brothers and fathers did.

This pseudo-anthropological investigation into the character and customs of the natives goes on with hardly any reference to the political realities, except for a brief mention of a Palestinian claim that nearby settlements took one-third of the village’s land (note this same subjective tone in the quote above). The word occupation doesn’t appear in the piece (a quote from a Palestinian – “they occupy us” – is as far as it gets), nor does “resistance.” Stone throwing, the author explains, is aimed against “Israel” as a whole.

“Children have hobbies, and my hobby is throwing stones,” a Palestinian teen is quoted as saying in a statement that Rudoren takes at face value. Apparently, confronting the Middle East’s strongest army, getting arrested and occasionally being shot to death is a local Arab tradition, formed in the desert due to a shortage in swimming pools and piano lessons, and then passed on from father to son. The whole report actually reads like a letter from India or Africa by a 19th century British correspondent – colorful and strong on details, with a touch of “human tragedy,” yet totally missing the story.

How could such pieces be written by such smart people, again and again? I’d like to offer some of my own anthropological ideas.

The typical New York Times reporter is totally embedded in Israeli society. Many of his or her friends are Israeli, their kids go to Israeli schools (the previous correspondent’s son joined the army), and it is quite natural for him or her to view reality through Israeli eyes, which is blind to the ongoing violence that Palestinians are subjected to. Therefore, these correspondents often find Palestinian behavior puzzling or foolish. (Rudoren explains that confronting army vehicles with stones is “futile.”)

Had Rudoren lived in a Palestinian village or town, she would have felt, among other things, the effects of the checkpoints, the limits on freedom of movement, the price tag attacks, the military courts, the limited access to water, the despair and all other elements (none of which appear in her piece) that are a direct product of the occupation. She probably wouldn’t have treated the confiscation of village land by the settlement as a “claim” any more that she would have done so for a rocket falling on Sderot. More than anything, she would have realized that Palestinians live in a war zone everyday of their lives, and not just when they drive to buy pizza. Thus, their behavior would have made sense to her in such a context. Maybe then she would have raised other questions about the unnatural and grotesque reality on the ground, rather than dismiss efforts to change it. (The notion that unarmed resistance to the occupation is futile is factually incorrect, but that’s another story.)

It is no surprise that when a New York Times reporter actually lived with Palestinians for a while, he came out with an entirely different piece. But this was an exception, as was the work of a former Times’ reporter in Gaza, whose reasons for leaving her post had to do with some of the issues discussed above. The heart of the Times‘ coverage – especially in the news pages – is done from an Israeli perspective, and even when the occupation is criticized, it is done by using the tone, language and arguments of the Israeli opposition. The Palestinians are kept as the object of the story – they are analyzed, their interests are explained by the author, and even when they are quoted, they are denied their own voice.

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sh

You seem to be assuming that this approach is inadvertent, Yossi: a product of unintentionally limited awareness. I can’t imagine why. I would see it more in terms of someone teaching J Roduren, as she stupidly calls hersef: “Now, Jodi, when you’re writing about the sporadic resistance efforts of oppressed and dispossessed people, this is the way to do it: analyse their efforts without mentioning the political context at all, because that’s what we want to suppress, you get it? So, say they do it because they’re bored, because their parents haven’t instilled in them the self-discipline encessary to take up a more sustained and productive occupation, right?” And Jodi says: “Yes boss, I get that exactly. I know what you pay me for. I’m a propaganda operative, with a little sideline in psychological warfare, and by God I’m proud of it. By the way, when do I get my next raise?”

I know, those poor IDF soldiers occupy too because they feel like it and it’s fun. I don’t suppose the decades of Arab rejectionism and thousands of terrorist attacks have anything to do with the “occupation.”

Reply to Comment

Jan

TuesdayAugust 6, 2013

The occupation is to keep Palestinians in their place, to make life miserable so that they will hopefully leave, to take their land and water etc. etc.

The occupation has been going on unabated since 1967. All that many Palestinians know of Jewish Israelis are the IDF military and the illegal settlers. They know who is taking the land of their villages, who comes into their homes in the middle of the night to haul them off to prison, who has placed them under curfew many times while at the same time ignoring Israeli crimes against Palestinians.

They throw rocks not as a hobby but because it is an act of resistance. Maybe you would like it better if they were as well armed as the settlers.

I am Jewish and if I were in the villages i would have to be restrained from rock throwing when I see what the IDF and the settlers do.

BTW, if the IDF kept out of the villages and away from the weekly demonstrations there would be no need to throw rocks at them. The IDF is just asking for it.

Reply to Comment

The Trespasser

TuesdayAugust 6, 2013

>The occupation is to keep Palestinians in their place

No, the occupation is to prevent Palestinian Arabs from exterminating Palestinian Jews.

Reply to Comment

The Trespasser

MondayAugust 5, 2013

Over 100 years ago there was no Zionist occupation in Yemen, yet Arabs were happily throwing stones at Jews, who would not throw some back, by the way, in fear of death penalty.

Reply to Comment

sh

TuesdayAugust 6, 2013

No-one ever threw a stone at you (for being a Jew) where you come from, Trespasser, that you have to run to Yemen for such a story?

Reply to Comment

The Trespasser

TuesdayAugust 6, 2013

As a matter of fact, no-one ever did until I came here.

Funny thing that here I was stone thrown at not only by Arabs but also by Jews.

Bloody savages.
😀

Reply to Comment

Joe

MondayAugust 5, 2013

Noam Sheizaf’s antagonism is unwarranted. Rudoren’s article makes quite clear that it is the Israeli occupation that generates Palestinian stone-throwing, not a lack of after-school activities. The article does not treat Palestinians as voice-less colonial subjects; this is Sheizaf’s imagination and not supported by textual evidence. Rather, it is the Israeli settler complaining about being stoned while going for pizza who comes off as surreal-ly clueless. Good journalism involves very hard work, excellent listening skills, and consciousness of one’s own potential biases. Rudoren displays those attributes in this tightly-written and tightly-edited article. Rudoren deserves thanks for such writing.

Reply to Comment

The Trespasser

MondayAugust 5, 2013

>it is the Israeli occupation that generates Palestinian stone-throwing

What generates Palestinian Arab stone-throwing is old and widely accepted tradition of stone-throwing amongst Muslims.

Jan

TuesdayAugust 6, 2013

Back in the 1970s when the Nicaraguan Sandinistas began their uprising against the far right dictator Anastasio Somoza the weapon of choice to use against the brutal Guardia Nacional were the paving stones of the streets. These were not Palestinians throwing rocks. They were Christians and Jews.

I guess that stone throwing is also part of the Christian and Jewish tradition.

Reply to Comment

The Threspasser

TuesdayAugust 6, 2013

>Back in the 1970s when the Nicaraguan Sandinistas began their uprising against the far right dictator Anastasio Somoza the weapon of choice to use against the brutal Guardia Nacional were the paving stones of the streets.

>These were not Palestinians throwing rocks. They were Christians and Jews.

“Palestinians” semantically does not belong to same category as “Christians” or “Jews”

It should be “These were not Muslims throwing rocks. They were Christians and Jews.” or “These were not Palestinians throwing rocks. They were Nicaraguans”

As you rightfully noticed, stones where the weapon of choice in an uprising.
But:
1) There is not ongoing uprising in Israel/Palestine, at least not officially.
2) There is no set goal which might be reached through throwing stones, like it was in Nicaragua, leave alone the goal of extermination of the Jewish state, but let’s pretend that there is no such goal.
3) There was no uprising of any kind in Yemen 100 years ago, yet stones were thrown at Jews.

>I guess that stone throwing is also part of the Christian and Jewish tradition.

Jewish, certainly. Probably you had heard about religious Jews who are stoning people and buses in the city of Bet Shemesh. Obviously, in both cases barbaric behaviour takes place, dictated by Quran and Torah respectively.

sh

And cobbles as ammo are a time-honored way of expressing dissent when demos get rough in European countries that still have cobbled streets.

Reply to Comment

rickibobbi

MondayAugust 5, 2013

wowsa, lots of blaming the victim stuff going on here, and typically racist at that. Them thar gosh dern Palestiniansssesss, just love to throw stones, it’s part of their dna, don’t you know, no reason for it tat’all. It’s not as if there is a US supported settler colonial occupation that immiserates their lives on a daily basis. That would be absurd to claim, anti-semitic even. So, now we get stone throwing equated with armed occupation by the world’s fourth largest army and we get people thinking that this makes sense. I suppose there is always two sides to a debate, flat earth, round earth; evolution, creationism. Humans breath air, humans breath lava, etc

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The Trespasser

MondayAugust 5, 2013

>wowsa, lots of blaming the victim stuff going on here

Victim of own hatred and poor leadership, yes.

>and typically racist at that.

Obviously, it is racist to point out that stone-throwing is part of Arab tradition.

>Them thar gosh dern Palestiniansssesss

Palestinian Arabs.

>just love to throw stones

Yes.

>it’s part of their dna

Culture.

>don’t you know, no reason for it tat’all.

In Yemen there was no occupation, yet stones where thrown. I suppose, any reason is good to throw stones at Jews, right?

>It’s not as if there is a US supported settler colonial occupation that immiserates their lives on a daily basis.

It is not as if Palestinian Arabs refused to coexist peacefully and not refused to create a bi-national state in 1919, 1920, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1928, 1931 and on other occasions and refused to create own state in 1948, 2000, 2002 and 2008.

People who repeatedly reject to have a state apparently don’t really need one.

>That would be absurd to claim, anti-semitic even.

Yes.

>So, now we get stone throwing equated with armed occupation

Are you suggesting that Jews should lay down weapons and arm themselves with sticks and stones?

David T.

TuesdayAugust 6, 2013

@ The Trespasser

“Obviously, it is racist to point out that stone-throwing is part of Arab tradition.”

You said that it is this tradition which generates stone throwing and not the occupation. Otherwise you would have to admit that Israel creates violence through the violence which is needed to occupy a whole nation.

So tell us from your racist point of view. What is “Jewish tradition” when it comes to the occupation and colonialization of land and their behaviour towards the locals?

“It is not as if Palestinian Arabs refused to coexist peacefully and not refused to create a bi-national state in 1919, 1920, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1928, 1931 and on other occasions …”

LOL. Are you really trying to tell us that where ever a tiny minority of foreign Jewish nationalists wants to create a state of their own or a binational state the majority of the indigenous population has to accept this? Is that your idea of “peaceful coexistence” with Jews – that a country has to accept infinite Jewish immigration, especially when the leading group amongst them plans to take over the country by outnumbering the locals?

“… and refused to create own state in 1948, 2000, 2002 and 2008.”

You don’t know what you are talking about. Arab Palestinans wanted Palestine to be released into independence since 1919, especially in 1948 and did so in a part of historic Palestine in 1988. It’s Israel which refuses to recognize this state. First in all of Palestine, now in 22%.

Reply to Comment

The Trespasser

TuesdayAugust 6, 2013

>You said that it is this tradition which generates stone throwing and not the occupation. Otherwise you would have to admit that Israel creates violence through the violence which is needed to occupy a whole nation.

Israel creates violence in response for violence.

>So tell us from your racist point of view. What is “Jewish tradition” when it comes to the occupation and colonialization of land and their behaviour towards the locals?

Not any land, mind you.

“And I have set thy border from the Red Sea, even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness unto the River: for I give into your hand the inhabitants of the land, and thou hast cast them out from before thee; thou dost not make a covenant with them, and with their gods; they do not dwell in thy land, lest they cause thee to sin against Me when thou servest their gods, when it becometh a snare to thee.’”

>LOL. Are you really trying to tell us that where ever a tiny minority of foreign Jewish nationalists wants to create a state of their own or a binational state the majority of the indigenous population has to accept this?

Well, opinion that Jews have no right to have a homeland in Judea because they lost it 2000 years ago is totally legit.

However, at the same token it does mean that Palestinian Arabs have no right to have a homeland in Palestine because they lost in 70 years ago. Unless, of course, you want to argue that 2000 years old events should have some precedence over 70 years old events.

Ponder over it.

>Is that your idea of “peaceful coexistence” with Jews – that a country has to accept infinite Jewish immigration, especially when the leading group amongst them plans to take over the country by outnumbering the locals?

Three radical Zionists write that the country should be taken over – peacefully.
And how many more did write that peaceful coexistance with local population is necessary?

Brit Shalom (Hebrew: ברית שלום‎, lit. “covenant of peace”; Arabic: تحالف ألسلام‎, Tahalof Essalam; also called the Jewish–Palestinian Peace Alliance) was a group of Jewish ‘universalist’ intellectuals in Palestine, founded in 1925, which never exceeded a membership of 100.

Ruppin was a major Zionist figure and held a senior position within the Jewish Agency as Director of the Palestine Land Development Company. Most Palestinian Jews and Arabs rejected the proposed binational solution, and Ruppin himself eventually became convinced it was unrealistic. The group disintegrated by the early 1930s

Well, there was at least 100 Jews, trying to coexist peacefully. Are you aware of any similar groups among Arabs?

>You don’t know what you are talking about.

Oh, I’m afraid that I do, actually.

>Arab Palestinans wanted Palestine to be released into independence since 1919

Yeah, right.

First Congress – Jerusalem 1919
Palestine part of Arab Syria
Rejection of French proposals for the area
No foreign influence
All foreign treaties referring to the area to be null and void
To maintain friendly relations with Britain and the Allied Powers, accepting help on condition that it did not affect the country’s independence

Third Congress – Haifa 1920
called for Palestine to be part of the independent Arab State promised in the MacMahon Correspondence. Calls for unity with Syria were dropped because it was recognised that the area was now under French control.
condemned the notion of a Jewish National Home.
objected to the recognition of the Zionist Organisation as an official body and the use of Hebrew as an official language
opposed Jewish immigration.
declared the British administration illegal since the League of Nations had not yet come to a decision about the status of the territory.

In1948 they rejected the Partition Plan and refused to declare a state.

>and did so in a part of historic Palestine in 1988.

Well, you can’t really refuse a deal, unleash war, lose it and after 40 years demand that very same deal again.

>And who exactly It’s Israel which refuses to recognize this state. First in all of Palestine, now in 22%.

In 1919 Arabs refused to create a binational state and demanded that Palestine would become part of Syria.

In 1948 Arabs rejected the Partition Plan, Jews accepted.

In 1988 Arabs declare that they are not willing to peacefully coexist in a binational state and want a state of their own.

In 1993 Jews complied

BUT

“After a two-day discussion in the Knesset on the government proclamation in the issue of the accord and the exchange of the letters, on 23 September 1993, a vote of confidence was held in which 61 Knesset members voted for the decision, 50 voted against and 8 abstained.

Palestinian reactions were also divided. Fatah, the group that represented the Palestinians in the negotiations, accepted the accords. But Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine objected to the accords because their own charters refuse to recognize Israel’s right to exist in Palestine.”

The difference was that Israel was/is a state, meaning that government representing all people of the state and is supposed to have full control over police and military, while Yasser Arafat was not representing other groups and had no control over them.

Although some (most?) Palestinians would not really care what is the name of their state, as long as they have job and are not beaten every night, there are some (a lot?) who strongly believe that between Jordan and the Sea there could only be one state – Arab, with Jews at worst living as 4th grade citizens, after women and dogs and at best not living there at all.

And not only that… As you probably know, most Muslims believe that Muhammad had visited Jerusalem and that Al Quds al Sharif is located in Jerusalem and that dirty al-Yahud have no right to desecrate this holy place with their unholy presence.

Of course, it is of no importance whatsoever that the place is first and foremost holy to Jews.

Reply to Comment

David T.

ThursdayAugust 8, 2013

>Israel creates violence in response for violence.

Israel was only created through terrorism and war and needs violence to keep its Nonjewish citizens expelled and denationalized and to colonialize beyond its declared borders of 48.

> Not any land, mind you.

Again, what is “Jewish tradition” when it comes to the occupation and colonialization of land and their behaviour towards the locals?

> Racist, huh?

Of course, like the author of this text. You could have written it, if you have lived back then. Noone would have noticed any difference. Just claim that it was God who said this words and therefore everyone else has to believe and accept it. LOL.

“Well, opinion that Jews have no right to have a homeland in Judea because they lost it 2000 years ago is totally legit.

However, at the same token it does mean that Palestinian Arabs have no right to have a homeland in Palestine because they lost in 70 years ago. Unless, of course, you want to argue that 2000 years old events should have some precedence over 70 years old events.

Ponder over it.”

It’s rather a question of who was a citizen of Palestine in 1948 – and not if he’s Arab or Jewish.

“Three radical Zionists write that the country should be taken over – peacefully. …”

Despite of your self delusions – is that you idea of peaceful coexistence that any country has to accept infinite immigration by Jews until they outnumber the local nonjewish population?

> Well, there was at least 100 Jews, trying to coexist peacefully.

No, there were more than 100.000 Jews who were not interested in Zionism but in continuing to live peacefully with Arabs.

> Are you aware of any similar groups among Arabs?

The Arabs were coexisting peacefully with Jews before the Zionists intention regarding Palestine were revealed. You probably don’t know that. Jewish colonialists and their descendants probably don’t want to know that they both groups were babysitting each others children.

> “Independence” is not quite the same as “Part of larger state”

On the first congress in 1919 they framed a national charter that demanded independence for Palestine. A majority of delegates wanted to merge an independent Palestine with Syria as a protection against Zionism.

> In 1948 they rejected the Partition Plan and refused to declare a state.

The ususal Hasbara BS. They didn’t need to declare a state. Palestine was allready a state under mandate. They and other Arab states only asked this state to be released into independence before partition was even discussed.

> Well, you can’t really refuse a deal, unleash war, lose it and after 40 years demand that very same deal again.

So if the minority of a minority wants to have 55% territory of a country against the will of its majority than its a “deal”. And if the majority rejects this “deal” and tries to defend it against the minority who acquires the territory only through war and expells the majority to become a majority, it was the orginial majority who unleashed a war, right?

> In 1919 Arabs refused to create a binational state and demanded that Palestine would become part of Syria.

Do you have a problem with majority ruling if Jews are a minority?
Zionist refused to let Palestine to be released into independence or ruled by majority under mandate.

> In 1948 Arabs rejected the Partition Plan, Jews accepted.

Do you have a problem with majority ruling, if Jews are a minority?

Btw. “Jews” accept partition only as a step. They collaborated with Jordan before 48 to split up Palestine. They proposed to annex Gaza and asked Britain, if they could conquer the Westbank and annex it, too.

> In 1988 Arabs declare that they are not willing to peacefully coexist in a binational state and want a state of their own.

Even funnier BS. Who didn’t want to live in a single, democratic state with minority rights since 1948 and keeps people expelled to maintain being a majority?

> BUT

“Oslo Accords” – How to make an occupation seem less than an occupation if the occupier allows the occupied to excercise some control over themselves in enclaves the occupiers allows them to live under martial law.

eyeznskyz

MondayAugust 5, 2013

stone throwing became part of Palestinian life as much as killing Palestinian children became part of life in the zionazi society.Their thugs soldiers shoot,arrest and abuse Palestinians and on weekend they gather up on a dinner with the family as if they have done nothing wrong,rather they are treated as heroes of that genocidal society.

Reply to Comment

Laurent Szyster

MondayAugust 5, 2013

Once in a while a western journalist reports some unpleasant facts about the Palestinian society without systematically blaming it all on the occupation.

Yet that drop in an ocean of politically correct bullshit is already too much for the self-hating lot at +972.

God forbids that liberal opinion makers would some day take off their blinders and see that Palestinians collectively behave no differently than their other Arab “brothers”, in the same counter-productive, dysfunctionnal and backward way as they do in Syria, Egypt, Algeria, Lebanon, Irak or Jordan.

Reply to Comment

sh

TuesdayAugust 6, 2013

Both you and Trespasser ought to get the boot out of here not for having a dissenting political opinion but for pure, common or garden racism. The mirror image of implying that the inhabitants of all Arab countries are the same is what you’d call anti-Semitism if the word Arab was replaced by Jew. But you already knew that, didn’t ya?

Reply to Comment

The Trespasser

TuesdayAugust 6, 2013

>Both you and Trespasser ought to get the boot out of here not for having a dissenting political opinion but for pure, common or garden racism.

It would be racism if most (all?) Arab societies were not counter-productive, dysfunctional or backward.

I dare you to name even one Arab state which could be considered progressive or successful, in terms of human rights, political freedoms and economic prosperity.

If you name one such state, which could be compared to, say, Belgium, USA or even Israel :-D, I promise not to ever write here again.

>The mirror image of implying that the inhabitants of all Arab countries are the same is what you’d call anti-Semitism if the word Arab was replaced by Jew.

Let’s see…

“Inhabitants of all Arab countries are the same”
“Inabitants of all Jewish countries are the same”

Hmm… Something does not make up… Ah, I know – there is only one Jewish country. Statistically, you can’t really compare those.

>But you already knew that, didn’t ya?
Yes. There are tens of Arab states and only one Jewish state. We know.

Reply to Comment

sh

ThursdayAugust 8, 2013

– I see that the USA you consider successful. The rich are stinking rich, the poor are dirt poor and there’s no across-the-board health insurance. Same in Saudi Arabia and Dubai. Possibly Jordan too. Both the USA and Belgium possess nuclear reactors. Israel is evasive but stops at nothing to prevent any other country in the region – by definition Arab – even thinking about one.

– Progressive. As with the word Zionist, I always ask myself what that means, since so many types with different views lay claim to the the word. So I asked google what a progressive country is. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_country

So I asked an online dictionary:

“pro·gres·sive [pruh-gres-iv] Show IPA
adjective
1.
favoring or advocating progress, change, improvement, or reform, as opposed to wishing to maintain things as they are, especially in political matters: a progressive mayor.
2.
making progress toward better conditions; employing or advocating more enlightened or liberal ideas, new or experimental methods, etc.: a progressive community.
3.
characterized by such progress, or by continuous improvement.
4.
( initial capital letter ) of or pertaining to any of the Progressive parties in politics.
5.
going forward or onward; passing successively from one member of a series to the next; proceeding step by step.”

Without going into what enlightened and liberal mean since they are as vague as progressive, two of our Arab neighbours, plus Tunisia are in the throes of a revolution, I guess they qualify for numbers 1 and 5.

You said:
—–
““Inhabitants of all Arab countries are the same” “Inabitants of all Jewish countries are the same”
Hmm… Something does not make up… Ah, I know – there is only one Jewish country. Statistically, you can’t really compare those.
>But you already knew that, didn’t ya? Yes. There are tens of Arab states and only one Jewish state. We know.”
—-

So you need reminding about the theory that Jews the world over are all the same? Must I furnish you with the stereotypes or can you manage on your own?

I guess there could be an intra-Palestinian campaign to replace stone throwing with dirt throwing as a gesture of good will.

Yes, people can be hurt with stones, and there has been at least one death thereby. And there have been many deaths and maimings with bullets and bombs. Since each side is divinely right, only opposition violence needs censure. Stone throwing thereby becomes evidence of a culture trait of anti Semitism endured for centuries, as well as indicator that the terror of suicide bombing remains latent. A local analysis of contributing causes (such as soldier behavior, transport restrictions, and endured hardship and loss) serves to obfuscate the real Platonic cause, and so must be resisted. In analogy, if I claim God does something, and you provide say a medical explanation alternative, I will deny your explanation categorically as unclean. But this unclean denial can also occur the other way, claiming the occupation forgives all actions. Particulate explanation will fail as inherent friend to any side.

As to the NYT reporter, yes, I can believe that the tales of 2000-8 have influenced her perception. I can believe nonetheless that she went on location to see for herself. But a clear indicator that she will see little can be inferred from Yossi’s Gurvitz’s human rights reports on this site, which are met with near total silence. Such silence is, I think, reason for Noam’s position herein.

Reply to Comment

steven katsineris

TuesdayAugust 6, 2013

Yes, imagine it, building on Palestinian land, bulldozing their houses, taking their fields over, their water, burning their trees, arresting, injuring or killing any that resist and driving along minding own business and they throw rocks. Why do they do that.

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Amram Bozouglo

TuesdayAugust 6, 2013

from the river to the sea Israel will be free

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Daniah

WednesdayAugust 7, 2013

The manny massacres the Israelis committed against the Palestinian people and even against the Lebanese people are uncountable! Go ahead search them online get educated for god’s sake. Your ignorance entertains me, so let’s indulge your ignorance a bit and put it as a story. When settlers come in from a place so far away from the original Palestine, from Europe mainly russia and poland that have no ancestral connection to the land of palestine what so ever and say oh yeah in our religion god promised us this land so yeah get the heck out of hear and let us confiscate all your lands and properties and kill you and torture you that’ll be enough let’s treat you the same way the Nazi’s did to us! No no that would be enough wouldn’t it? Let’s add salt to the wound and call you terrorists! That shall destroy you evil Palestinians. I pity your intelligence, poor you. Someday and believe me that day will come Palestinians will get their land back and you zionists would go back to your original country. I have nothing against Jews I respect every religion. But I certainly despise Zionism and Israel for their horrible mutilations and war crimes

Amram Bozouglo

FridayAugust 9, 2013

About time you guys stopped playing the victim,pull the finger out,put away the Backgammon boards,the smoke pipes,leave the coffee shops and go to work……About time you stopped Living on foreign handouts.

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Uri

TuesdayAugust 6, 2013

Children don’t know sh*t about politics, and therefore whatever “political” motives the adults might say they have, whatever they do is a pure hobby or due to peer pressure.

In this sense, the NYT author got it 100% right. Stone-throwing is not political resistance but a hobby, a way to show your other 10-12 year old friends that you’re not a child anymore, but a man. Similar to children watching porn and talking about sex (as if they’re experts), talking in a rough way and bullying weaker boys, smoking cigarettes in a young age, etc.

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Joel

TuesdayAugust 6, 2013

That’s a weird photo of the two young men. What could have caused the young man’s injury?

Rubber bullet? Tear gas? Baton?
Rock?

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Ken Kelso

ThursdayAugust 8, 2013

Hamas and Fatah’s idea of peace is “2 Palestinian states side by side with no Israel.

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Ken Kelso

ThursdayAugust 8, 2013

The ongoing incitement against Israel and Jews that is rife in the Palestinian school system speaks to their real hated intent.

You can’t make peace with Muslim people’s who embrace and glorify death. You can’t make peace with people who teach their children that Jews are pigs and monkey and drink the blood of Arab children. You can’t make peace with people who do not recognize your right to exist.

You cannot make peace with people who openly call for your destruction. Let’s be honest, if Israel agreed to move all 6 million of its Jewish population to an area the size of a postage stamp and gave the Arabs the rest, that would not be acceptable to them. BECAUSE THEY WANT ALL OF ISRAEL.

Reply to Comment

Ken Kelso

ThursdayAugust 8, 2013

Palestinians get more aid per capita then any people on earth yet they are always angry. All foreign aid should be cut off till they grow up, stop firing missiles at civilians, and learn to be productive humans instead of moochers and terrorists.

My advice to these Pals is very simple.
Quit trying to blow up innocent Israeli families on vacation, stop trying to conduct terrorism around the world. You want your welfare handout from the West, than stop with the terrorism and your child abuse death cult.

Hamas and Fatah are always ready to sacrifice women and children for their greed and hatred.

The Palestinians will blow up the same hospital that gave them excellent care. The will try to blow up the power plant providing electricity from Israel. Their hate knows no end.

There is perhaps no society on earth with as dark a history of promoting a child death cult, sacrificing its children, encouraging its children to seek death, praising those who die, than the Palestinians. Any serious investigation here will not go well for the Palestinians and 972mag

The Palestinians indeed ghoulishly exploit the children whose deaths they cause by using them as human shields and strapping bombs on them, telling them if they kill Jewish children they will get 72 virgins.

Why does Hamas fire rockets from a school praying that Israel return fires and kill some of it’s children.
Thats Gaza today.

The Arabs are the only people in the world that go out day by day figuring ways to get their children to die in front of the world press.

As Golda Meir said.
“We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children. We will only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us.”

Reply to Comment

Ken Kelso

ThursdayAugust 8, 2013

We have fascists like Daniah trying to blame Israel for defending itself against Palestinian terrorists.

Earth to Daniah, Israel existed 1500 years before Mohammad was born.
Arabs are all invaders from Saudi Arabia.
Jews come from Israel.

If Daniah wants to see who the Islamo Nazis are, all he has to do is see the Palestinians Nazi media.
Its all on Palmediawatch.http://www.palwatch.org

The Palestinians continually initiate the violence. The Israelis have not fired the first shots.
Do the Palestinians expect not to be fired back on? Its ok for them to blow up school kids on buses, shopping malls, disco’s, pizzeria’s and Passover seders.

Someone please explain to me how the Israelis could possibly live next to such a violent people. I personally don’t see how it can be done at this point. All I see is the Palestinians provoking war and using any method they can to get all of Israel.

Reply to Comment

Ken Kelso

ThursdayAugust 8, 2013

How the Palestinians love their children.
Remember what Golda Meir said.

Barry Meridian

The two main parties in the Arab camp, Hamas and Fatah, both constitutionally dedicated to 1 united Arab country, cleansed of Jews.

Abbas has made clear he wants a state free of Jews and to flood Israel with millions of Arabs.

Abbas and the PA also want to destroy all Jewish history in Jerusalem.http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=5490
PA TV: Western Wall area to be turned into Arab housing neighborhood.
Palestinian Authority TV:
Western Wall area to be turned into Arab housing neighborhood -Jewish presence in Jerusalem will be erased from history.
Aug. 17, 2011

Both Hamas and Fatah explicitly negate any possibility of Jewish sovereignty or presence anywhere in the land of Israel.

Even when you had a leader like Olmert offer everything but the kitchen sink to Abbas, that wasn’t good enough for Abbas.
Abbas cant accept the fact that Israel wont be under Palestinian fascist control.

By explaining just how far-reaching the Olmert offer was, Olmert demonstrates just how empty the Palestinian excuses for their refusal to make peace really are.

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I am an independent journalist and editor. I have worked for Tel Aviv’s Ha-ir local paper, for Ynet.co.il and for the Maariv daily, where my last post was deputy editor of the weekend magazine. My work has recently been published in Haaretz, Yedioth Ahronoth, The Nation and other newspapers and magazines.

I was born in Ramat-Gan and today live and work in Tel Aviv. Before working as a journalist, I served four and a half years in the IDF.

About +972 Magazine

+972 is an independent, blog-based web magazine. It was launched in August 2010, resulting from a merger of a number of popular English-language blogs dealing with life and politics in Israel and Palestine.

+972 is an independent, blog-based web magazine. It was launched in August 2010, resulting from a merger of a number of popular English-language blogs dealing with life and politics in Israel and Palestine.